Ministers Recommend Keeping Educational Institutions Closed Till May 15

New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Tuesday recommended the extension of closure of all educational institutions and restricting all religious activities with public participation till May 15, irrespective of whether the Centre extends the 21-day lockdown or not, PTI has learnt from official sources.

The meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman among others, agreed that religious centres, shopping malls and educational institutions should not be allowed to resume normal functioning at least for four weeks from April 14, when the current lockdown period ends.

Summer vacation will anyway start in schools and colleges around the middle of May and will thus remain shut till end of June.

The GoM, which is monitoring the overall situation in India in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, will be making recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The ministers also discussed possible scenarios, post the ongoing lockdown. They felt inputs of the states are vital before taking major decisions on containing the pandemic.

The Union ministers further recommended enhancing of testing facilities for coronavirus in medical laboratories, the sources said.